• 
  
  
  Home
• 
  
  Backlog
  Reduction
• Laboratory
  Assessment &
  Enhancement
  Services
• 
  
  Customized
  Training
• 
  
  Biometric
  Identification
  • What is it?
  • Why Is It Important? »
    • Corporate Responsibility
  • What Is It Used For? »
    • Kidnap/Ransom
    • Disaster Situations/
                     Incident Investigation
  • Modes of Identification »
    • DNA
    • Friction Ridge Skin
    • Facial Recognition
    • Iris Capture
    • Dental X-Ray
    • Other Modes
  • Risk Assessment & Custom BI
  • FAQs
• 
  
  Other
  Services
  • Law Enforcement
  • Corporate/Insurance
• 
  
  
  Resources
• 
  
  
  About Us
  • Matt Schwarz
• 
  
  
  Contact

In The News

2014-08-25 | Bucks crime lab struggles with backlog
While no one can point to a defendant who was kept in jail for a long time due to the problem, it illustrates Bucks County's unique struggle in handling some crime-lab work on its own. The county is the only one in Philadelphia's Pennsylvania suburbs to conduct its own drug identification tests as well as blood analysis for DUI cases. The other suburban counties hire private labs or the state police. District Attorney David Heckler said the tests are done in-house to save tax dollars and that the backlog is temporary. It cropped up about nine months ago, partly because of the increase in heroin cases, which is happening nationwide. But also to blame, Heckler concedes, are his efforts to seek national accreditation, an unheard-of distinction for a non-urban county crime lab in Pennsylvania.

2014-08-25 | Columbia’s police lab shut down
The Columbia Police Department has shut down its drug lab after an investigation found an analyst in the lab was not properly trained and her handling and analysis of drugs seized in criminal investigations were likely flawed. That analyst – who apparently isn’t qualified to do expert drug scientific analysis – has testified and provided evidence for criminal court cases in recent years and therefore those cases may be compromised, 5th Circuit Solicitor Dan Johnson said Saturday.

2014-08-20 | NIST to Establish Research Center of Excellence for Forensic Science
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced a competition to create a Forensic Science Center of Excellence dedicated to collaborative, interdisciplinary research. The center’s mission will be to establish a firm scientific foundation for the analytic techniques used in two important branches of forensic science, pattern evidence and digital evidence.

2014-08-18 | Small police departments fear closing Allegheny County crime lab
Last week, the Gold Room of the Allegheny County Courthouse, Downtown, was filled with elected officials and law enforcement representatives assembled for a joint Senate and House Democratic policy hearing about the future of funding for the county crime lab, which provides services such as tests involving toxicology, latent prints and firearms. The lab received more than 19,000 evidence submissions and performed more than 100,000 tests in 2013.

2014-08-07 | Broward Crime Lab Scandal Could Taint Many Cases
But the case wasn't a slam dunk. Several pounds of the marijuana apparently vanished. And it's possible that drugs disappeared in dozens of similar cases. Roberts' bust was only one piece of a scandal that could shake South Florida law enforcement to its core.

2014-08-07 | New DNA Tech Helps Make Arrest
Richland County got the DNA tool, which allows agencies to get a DNA result in 90 minutes, back in February. They're the first law enforcement agency in the country to receive that particular device, and received it from a donation from the company that makes it.

2014-07-30 | Federal review stalled after finding forensic errors by FBI lab unit spanned two decades
U.S. officials began the inquiry after The Washington Post reported two years ago that flawed forensic evidence involving microscopic hair matches might have led to the convictions of hundreds of potentially innocent people. Most of those defendants never were told of the problems in their cases.

2014-07-30 | Applying AFIS Case by Case
To address the recent concerns and published research regarding erroneous exclusions, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (MN BCA), in collaboration with 3M Cogent, Inc., conducted a study that led to the adoption of Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) technology in a novel “Case AFIS” application to reduce erroneous exclusions and catch more missed identifications. Using a Case AFIS approach, a process by which AFIS technologies were applied to specific cases, previously reported decisions were reviewed in this study for erroneous exclusions and missed identifications. This study shows that using the Case AFIS application would lead to more identifications and would be more efficient than the manual searching process.

2014-07-29 | Federal review stalled after finding forensic errors by FBI lab unit spanned two decades
U.S. officials began the inquiry after The Washington Post reported two years ago that flawed forensic evidence involving microscopic hair matches might have led to the convictions of hundreds of potentially innocent people. Most of those defendants never were told of the problems in their cases.

2014-07-29 | Division of Forensic Science struggles to get going
Investigators have documented at least 52 incidents of thefts from the drug lab between 2010 and February 2014. Problems at the lab have jeopardized thousands of past drug convictions and some 200 pending drug prosecutions.. The courts are deciding if the lapses were so egregious that all drug convictions from those years, along with the pending drug cases, should be tossed out.